Tejada says he won’t play in World Baseball Classic

Although he hasn’t yet told the Dominican Republic coaching staff, Miguel Tejada already informed the Astros that he will not participate in the World Baseball Classic.

“I’m sure it’s disappointing to other people that he won’t play, but I’m happy,” Astros manager Cecil Cooper said. “He’ll get a chance to do his regular routine from working on his defense. That’s stuff that he does every day with (bench coach Ed) Romero, his early work. He says he brought it from Oakland way back in the day and he’s always used this routine. He felt like going there and not being able to do his stuff and not being able to play his position, he’d lose that.”

Tejada wasn’t likely to play short for the Dominican Republic, so he and the Astros would rather he work on his position this spring at Osceola County Stadium with the club.

“This way he’d continue his routine,” Cooper said. “I think it really helped, and I think he would really tell you it really helped him last year to be a better defensive player. And I think he might have gotten away from it a little bit when he was playing with the Orioles. And he got it back last year and he was a very, very good shortstop last year. So I’m tickled that he’s here. We’ll get him on his routine and we’ll go from there.”

Nonetheless, the decision wasn’t an easy one for the man known in the Dominican Republic as the Nation’s Ballplayer.

“I have always been proud to wear my country’s jersey and carry our flag,” he says. “But I have to work here.”

As Tejada, 34, said earlier when admitting he was leaning against playing, he’s not a 20-year-old kid anymore. Now is not the time for him to practice playing first base.

If he had played in the WBC, “he doesn’t have a chance to do his own work, work that he needs to get ready for the season,” Cooper said. “He’s a shortstop. He’s a key component of what we do defensively. He’s one of the keys to our defense. He’s got to do his work. You take a person a lot of times out of that comfort zone from the things they’ve been doing it makes it tough on them.

“And here’s a guy who is not 22 anymore. He has to work on the things that he needs to work on. Sometimes it takes longer for an older guy. He has a routine. When guys get into their routine, you want to stay in their routine. And baseball players are really, really finicky about that. So I’m glad.”

I think that this is a sign of maturity by Tejada and a good decision. Hopefully last season showed him that he is no longer a player who can play 162-games and still produce. He needs more rest and I think playing in the baseball classic would cause him to tire out even faster.